HRBT, Sat Night 10/15

[tufnik]

Met Shield, Keith, Shadyfisher, HokieDJ and Minh at the Willoughby boat launch. As you may know, the whole weekend in the Hampton, Norfolk and Virginia Beach area was forecast to be pretty much windy. At Willoughby, we had pretty clear sky, but winds were maybe 10-18 mph from WSW. Shield and Keith decided to go to better protected Lynnhaven.

The rest of us launched about 9:30 pm. Saw a number of other boats and yakers out there. I jigged a bucktail with Gulp sandworm and got a bunch of tugs. Probably small fish. I also dragged a tandem with shrimp and squid and caught seabass. It was a slow night. Others, and they will give you details, caught small stuff too.

Winds were forecasted to die down to less than 10 mph throughout the night, but it picked up. The water got rough too with 3+ feet chops. All of us had wet rides, but I had waders and splash top. We decided to cut it short and went back to the launch at midnight.

[ictalurus]

Sorry to hear the fish weren't cooperative. Seeing sea bass is cool, though.

[Shady]

I managed 8-10 short flounder that were 12-15 inches, a seabass that was 10" (which sadly is probably my personal best), a medium sized toadfish and also a crab. I was using gulp swimming mullet with squid strips. On the way in I was seriously questioning my sanity, it was real choppy. Not a great night but not terrible...
The toadfish came home for a taste test and it was annoying to clean and didnt really yield much meat. I had the thing in my yakcatch cooler for atleast three hours and when I got back to the hotel and cleaned it, the thing was still as lively as when it came out of the water. It was still flopping after I was done cleaning it. After I was done with it, I put the carcass in the freezer and then threw it in the trash in the morning. Im convinced that once it thaws out it will start flopping around again in the hotel's trash can. I fried the toadfish tonight and it was the softest fish I have ever ate. It didnt taste bad, but it was like mush covered in a crispy coating.

[HokieDJ]

Nice meeting you out there. That was a nasty night and I was so tired of fighting the waves after fighting it at Kipto earlier. I only managed a small flounder and that was it. I got some bites which where specs but I couldn't keep one on the hook.

[tufnik]

You better on the flounder than I thought. And the toad, well...maybe the bigger ones are better to eat.

It was good to fish with you again, HokieDJ, and with Minh too. You guys did pretty well at Kipto. I was going to join you there, but the predicted winds intimidated me.